Lake City gay couple not surprised by court ruling

Tiffany Titus (left), 29, Zenen Titus (middle), 4 months, and Wendy Titus (right), 30, are photographed at Perry Square in Erie on Aug 22. The Titus's became the first same-sex couple to wed in Erie County with a marriage license issued in Pennsylvania, even though the state doesn't recognize same-sex marriages. JARID A. BARRINGER/ERIE TIMES-NEWS

LAKE CITY -- Wendy and Tiffany Titus weren't surprised that a judge ordered a rogue Montgomery County official to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The Tituses, a Lake City couple whose story was featured in the Aug. 25 Erie Times-News, were one of more than 170 gay couples who got the licenses. They were the first from Erie County to marry in Pennsylvania with a state-issued license.

"We knew this was going to be the ruling. What he did wasn't legal," said Tiffany Titus, 29, referring to Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes.

"Regardless, the man's still a hero. He stood up for an injustice. ... He didn't have the power to do it, but he did it anyway," Tiffany Titus said.

Hanes started issuing the licenses after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, which blocked federal recognition of gay marriage.

However, a 1996 state law defines marriage as a civil contract between a man and a woman. It further states that same-sex marriages, even if entered legally elsewhere, are invalid in Pennsylvania.

The issue is far from settled in Pennsylvania.

Hanes plans to appeal the ruling from Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court President Judge Dan Pellegrini. And Pellegrini's ruling did not say anything about the legal status of couples like the Tituses who got the licenses.

Tiffany Titus said that no news is good news on the status of their licenses. But she said that eventually a court will have to rule on the status of the 174 licenses due to uncertainty over whether spouses of same-sex couples would have access to insurance and other benefits.

"All we can do is sit and wait," she said.

Tiffany Titus said she thinks that gay marriage eventually will be accepted in all 50 states.

State pollster Terry Madonna agrees that it's "a matter of time" before it becomes the law of the land "once a case gets to the (U.S.) Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court strikes down a state law or a couple of states' laws."

The high court this summer provided a victory for gay-rights advocates when it rejected the part of the Defense of Marriage Act that has stopped legally married same-sex couples from getting health, tax and pension benefits that are available to heterosexual married couples.

But it did not take on a more sweeping declaration that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry anywhere in the nation.

Madonna said that his latest Franklin & Marshall College poll in May showed that 54 percent of Pennsylvanians support gay marriage, up from 52 percent in February.

But in an Aug. 28 Franklin & Marshall poll, 76 percent said it was unacceptable for Hanes to issue the licenses in violation of the state's ban on same-sex marriages. Eighteen percent said it was acceptable and 6 percent didn't know.

"That's sort of understandable. (Those being polled say) we support gay marriage, but it has to be done legally," Madonna said.